This mysterious shadow on the stairs was captured during a ghost hunt at Karen’s house

“My dog, whose sadly now died, was growling away, then shot off upstairs. I was absolutely frozen with fear. I phoned my friend and kept saying to her, ‘You need to come around, something is in the house.’

“At first she thought I was joking, but hearing how panicked I was, she soon realised I was serious. As I spoke to her, the banging stopped – but then I heard the kettle flick on, and cups clang from the other room.

“In my terrified mind I thought, ‘Is this thing making me a brew?’”

Karen’s family and friends initially didn’t believe her story – which wasn’t helped by the fact the ghost “went quiet” for a while.

Karen and Paul discovered Malcolm’s name via a Ouija board, along with the fact he died in 1858 aged 57

In a bid to know more about the ghost, Karen invited over a number of mediums, all of whom picked up on a strange energy in the house.

She also enlisted the help of a group of paranormal enthusiasts who run ghost hunts in a nearby park, inviting them over to film footage which captured a mysterious shadow descending the stairs, and a CCTV camera set up in the home being knocked to one side.

Karen said: “I don’t like to tell people too much about what’s happened before they come around, as I want them to make their own mind up, but every medium agrees that there’s something going on.

“I know people can be very sceptical about this sort of thing – I, myself, am a ‘got to see it to believe it’ person – but even my friends who don’t believe in ghosts say there’s a definite energy in the house.”

Karen says she has been in touch with the spiritual world since she was a little girl. This photo shows a ghostly shadow on her stairs

“Or they’ll spot shadows behind us that we wouldn’t otherwise have noticed.”

Even after the family got to know Malcolm’s history through a Ouija board, and adopted a more welcome approach, his supernatural antics haven’t calmed down.

She continued: “It can be really unsettling. Nowadays, I won’t sleep at home alone, or go downstairs by myself.

“Malcolm even manages to mimic us. Once, I heard my own voice out on the landing while I was in bed. Another time, Paul kept shouting for me, but when I went downstairs, there was nobody there and his car was gone. He was out, but I’d heard his voice 100%.